The Contribution of Female Health to Economic Development

David Bloom, Michael Kuhn and Klaus Prettner

No 21411, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We analyze the economic consequences for less developed countries of investing in female health. In so doing we introduce a novel micro-founded dynamic general equilibrium framework in which parents trade off the number of children against investments in their education and in which we allow for health-related gender differences in productivity. We show that better female health speeds up the demographic transition and thereby the take-off toward sustained economic growth. By contrast, male health improvements delay the transition and the take-off because ceteris paribus they raise fertility. According to our results, investing in female health is therefore an important lever for development policies. However, and without having to assume anti-female bias, we also show that households prefer male health improvements over female health improvements because they imply a larger static utility gain. This highlights the existence of a dynamic trade-off between the short-run interests of households and long-run development goals. Our numerical analysis shows that even small changes in female health can have a strong impact on the transition process to a higher income level in the long run. Our results are robust with regard to a number of extensions, most notably endogenous investment in health care.

JEL-codes: O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro and nep-hea
Note: DEV EH
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (33)

Published as David E Bloom & Michael Kuhn & Klaus Prettner, 2020. "The contribution of female health to economic development," The Economic Journal, vol 130(630), pages 1650-1677.

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Related works:
Journal Article: The contribution of female health to economic development (2020)
Working Paper: The contribution of female health to economic development (2016)
Working Paper: The contribution of female health to economic development (2016)
Working Paper: The Contribution of Female Health to Economic Development (2015)
Working Paper: The contribution of female health to economic development (2015)
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